Webs of Glass
by Dawns Heart
Summary: Before Harry Potter's era there was a boy and a girl. They belonged to the forgotten generation. Their names will only go down in the history books as a sidenote. However, without them the world would be unrecognisable. So step into Lily & James lives...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Some of these concepts are similar to those on the television show Gilmore Girls. Any and all similar concepts I acknowledge to be similar to, or have stemmed from this source. No copyright infringement is intended. Please don't sue.

Notes: Thanks very much to my wonderful Beta's Courtney and Clarissa. Without them this story wouldn't even be going up! Thank you! (This story is also posted on fictionalley under the username: DarkFlame). Enjoy, the first chapter will be updated shortly.

Summary (full): Without the journey, endings and beginnings are meaningless. It doesn't matter where you start, it matters what you do after you start. We all know how Harry Potter started, how his legend began...with his parents. However, we don't know much about them, we only know their end - death. We have immortalized them in our minds, and forgotten them. We have reduced them to the mere parents of the boy-who-lived. So, now come back with me, and watch their journey. Watch them grow in another time. Learn about the generation history is so eager to pass over. Join me, and observe their journey unfold into the destiny of the wizarding world.

X-X-X-X-X

At the moment you are intimately familiar with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter's time. It is a world where the _Stupefy_ charm is common knowledge, where Defence class is no longer optional, and everyone is constantly on their guard against strangers - the act of reaching out to one another long forgotten.

_A wild-eyed redheaded girl ran through the jungle as she hid from the pirates. It was extremely important she rescue her mate Theo from the claws of the dreaded pirate Smoky. The seven-year-old's hands and clothes were sticky with mud, and her hair was matted with bits of twigs and leaves. She was just about to pounce when a call of "Lily, time to go!" rang out._

_The jungle in her mind disappeared and the backyard returned as if that was the way it always was. She tripped at the sound and the cat bounded away with her teddy bear in tow._

_Her mother rushed down the steps and hurriedly took note of her scuffed knee, and wet cheeks. For some reason, that didn't sit well with her because, although Lily had scraped her knees and elbows many times, she had never cried. However, the reason for her tears became apparent very quickly as her mother got closer._

"_Mummy! Petty gave Mr. Theo to Smoky, and Theo is going to be ripped into shreds or eaten!" Green eyes wide, the five-year-old's nearly dry eyes burst into a fresh fountain of tears._

At the moment the magical world is a place of conflict. It is a place where jaded youths are burdened with the fate of the world. It is a time of slowly-dying laughter. It is a time of suspicion, a time where prejudice reigns free. It is a world where the common goal is no longer pure.

Ultimately, it is a place where innocence is stolen. It is a time where children are old beyond their years. Rather than enjoying their childhood, they are eager to become soldiers in the war thrust upon them.

_She couldn't believe it. She was actually here at the train station about to go to magic school. Would she be like Tinkerbell and learn to fly? Or would she befriend a dragon, perhaps? Read minds? Did this mean horses talked?_

_A bark pulled the vivacious redhead away from her babbling thoughts, and she threw her arms around the golden lab who had captured her heart when she was eight, "I'll miss you, Sandy. I promise I'll write. Take care, and I'll see you at Christmas."_

_Trying bravely not to cry as Sandy gave her a final lick, Lily couldn't help the tear that slid down her cheek as she hugged her mum, her best friend, goodbye for the next few months. The two were the closest of friends, a relatively odd relationship for a young mother and her only child, but a strong one nevertheless. After the whispered words of love and trepidation, Lily stepped through the wall as the letter had instructed._

_As the world materialised before her Lily forgot about her mother for a moment. She forgot about Sandy, and the town she was leaving behind. She saw only a world full of possibilities and wonder open up before her. The preteen now knew that fairytales came true. Unaware of the dangers of dragons and the dark forest, she stepped forward and began her destiny._

_Lily Evans was going to magic school._

There are no beginnings and no endings to the great wheel of life. What is often perceived as an ending is only another beginning, and so it goes. Nevertheless, while these events are significant, they are not the tale. They are the memories, yes, but they are not the life to it. They are not the purpose. Goals are fine things to reach, but in the end it matters not how you started towards them or even if you achieved them. What matters most is what you do along the way.

_The fourteen year old gazed out at the lake, his arms wrapped around his knees as he cried. So caught up was he in his misery, he didn't even notice the younger student sneaking up on him. In fact, it was only when she spoke that he noticed anything at all. _

"_Why are you so upset?" The girl didn't start off with a pointless 'are you okay' or 'what are you doing?' Instead, she just cut straight to the heart of the matter with all the subtlety of an elephant wandering around Piccadilly Circus No, no one would ever accuse the little bundle of having any tact._

_Caught off guard by the unexpected question, he answered truthfully. "I'm lonely."_

"_Don't you have friends?" the second year asked in innocent confusion._

_The adolescent smiled sadly at her. "You got me there."_

_The redhead contemplated those words for all of two seconds before she clambered up onto the rock beside him. "I'll be your friend," she told him sincerely. _

_As if it sealed the deal she dug into her pocket and offered him the item she pulled out. "Gum?"_

_The student looked at the innocent kid and attempted to explain to her, "You can't just decide to be someone's friend. You have to get to know them, you have to like them, and you have to really want to be there for them, otherwise it's meaningless."_

"_I know," she said as if it didn't change anything. And maybe it didn't. After all, what did he know?_

_The student looked at her wide, trusting eyes, and at the hand she still held outstretched towards him as if she had all the time in the world. He looked directly at her and then dug into his own pocket with a smile. "How about some chocolate?"_

_Her green eyes sparkled. "That's waaaay better," she wholeheartedly agreed as she took a piece and popped it into her mouth. "Mmmmmmm. This is REALLY good chocolate. Where'd you get it?"_

"_Honeydukes. In Hogsmeade," he clarified for her. At her confused expression he explained further, "Hogsmeade is the village the older years get to go to. It's not far from here."_

"_Oh! Neat. Can you take me there this week?" _

"_It's for older years only," he explained apologetically._

"_So?" she asked pointedly._

_The fourth year chuckled. "Good point."_

"_So what's your name anyway?" she asked him._

"_Well, what's yours, carrot-top?"_

_He laughed as she promptly stuck her tongue out at him._

"_Lily Evans." She now turned to him expectantly._

"_Kevin Murray."_

_The second year gave him a brilliant smile. "I think we're going to be great friends, Kevin Murray."_

"_You know," he said wonderingly, "I expect we will."_

Life is more than its ending. It's a collection of moments. Some you remember, many you don't. You remember the feelings, however. The laughter, the tears, the hysterics, the explosions… Ultimately it is not the ending, the destiny, of any individual that matters – it is the journey.

It is the friends you make along the way. The family you meet. The times you share. The memories you make. Without all of those, whatever you do is meaningless, because you don't do it for anyone.

Who are you? You are one who is meant to shine. Whether you choose to reach out and grant others that gift is your choice, but if you ask Harry's parents, you'll find that it's a choice well worth making.

_Gwen nudged her friend in the side. Lily looked up from the book she was hurriedly studying behind the cauldron in preparation for her upcoming test in Transfiguration. Damn it! Why did she always leave things to the last minute?! _

"_What?" the redhead snapped distractedly._

"_Ummm…I don't think it came out right," Gwen pointed to the potion she had mostly been doing herself. It would have helped considerably if Gwen didn't have an aversion to the slimy dead things she was forced to touch. Lily looked into the cauldron to discover that what should have been a translucent seaweed green potion with golden swirls in it and gold bubbles rising out of the cauldron, was actually a lumpy, burbling, purple-grey sludge with violent red streaks. _

_As she continued to watch in horrified fascination, a particularly large red bubble in the center popped, and in doing so, revealed a little fountain in the center of the sludge._

_Lily hurriedly backed away from the cauldron as she clutched her notes to her chest. "Ummmm…Gwen, I think it's about to-"_

_BOOM!!!! _

_Someone screamed, and Lily had automatically curled down in a poor effort to protect the notes she so desperately needed for next period's test (under threat of impending doom from McGonagall). A foul smell wafted up from the purple-grey sludge that was splattered all over the furniture, the floor, the students, the wall, even the ceiling and of course…the professor._

"_-explode."_

Who did they fight for? Who did they live for? Who did they die for?

These questions seem to be so easily and carelessly answered: their son, their world. Nevertheless, it is much easier to answer for them, in order to receive the answer you want to hear, than it is to hear them answer what was in their hearts.

You want to believe they saved you, but you don't want to think about them, because they died to do it. You'd rather believe they, who had so much to live for, couldn't have died. So you gloss over their memory, over their truth. Fervently, you try to make up for it by doting on their son, whom you believe can save you, even though he wants none of your gratitude, none of your conditions, none of your attentions.

It is much easier to put words in the mouths of the dead and forget them than it is to pay attention to the truth coming from the hearts of the living. But taking the easy route doesn't mean it's right.

_Kevin and Lily were soaked with snow. Their sweaters had not provided ample protection from the falling snow, especially when taking into account the subsequent snowball fight Lily had begun. _

_They laughed as they returned through the falling snow to Lily's house. Kevin had agreed to spend winter vacation with her and her mother, and so they had made up a room for him and bombarded him with the organized chaos that was their life. _

"_It's your own fault you're cold," Kevin pointed out to the younger teenager._

"_Was not!" Lily stuck her tongue out at him in a manner strongly reminiscent to that of a child. _

"_Oh, really? How is lobbing a snowball at someone's head not considered to be instigating a fight?" the seventh year didn't curb his sarcasm with that comment…. Not that he ever did anyway. _

"_I was provoked!" Lily proclaimed triumphantly. _

"_By what?! My oh so incredible powers of telekinesis?"_

"_Noooooo!" Lily drew out the word in an exaggerated manner as if it was her companion who was being deliberately dense. "You armed yourself."_

"_I did not!" he exclaimed, offended._

_She nodded her head emphatically. "Yes, you did. You bent down to pick up some snow."_

"_I bent down to pick up my hat which had fallen off my head," Kevin defended._

"_Not from where I'm standing," Lily sang._

"_Then move downwind!"_

"_Tut-tut. Now is that something you should be saying to the birthday girl?" Lily asked him sweetly._

"_Yes?" Kevin guessed._

_Lily tutted again. "Poor, poor boy," she explained with exaggerated sincerity. "You should proclaim me your queen, understand that all I say goes, and so when I tell you something you say 'yes, my liege.' For example, when I tell you that it was you who started the snowball fight, you say…."_

_She turned towards him with a grand arm gesture to prompt him only to receive a fistful of snow in her face._

"_Yes, my liege," Kevin mocked before taking off down the street._

"_Kevin!" she shrieked right before she gave chase. _

_Down the streets they ran, as each dodged the occasional snowball the other sent their way. Finally, they arrived at her house, rosy-cheeked and out of breath, their hair soaked in sweat. Kevin collapsed against the door and held his hand out to Lily, who had gracelessly plopped herself down on the steps leading up to her house. "Truce?" he offered his hand._

_Lily grabbed his hand, tugged the unbalanced young man towards her, and stuck a fistful of snow down his shirt. "Truce," she sweetly acquiesced. _

_Too tired to argue with the frustrating redhead, he muttered a couple of choice words about evil witches under his breath that Lily magnanimously pretended not to hear. _

_They sat like that for a few more moments as they watched the sun begin to set. "We need to go inside," Lily pointed out._

"_I know," Kevin agreed without any helpful input whatsoever._

"_So move," she told him._

"_You first."_

"_Birthday," she reminded him._

_Kevin groaned. "Fine then, on three. One. Two. THREE!" Together they pushed themselves off the steps and fumbled their way to the door. _

_Lily opened the unlocked door, and nearly tumbled backwards as a huge shout of "Surprise!" deafened her._

"_Wha-?" the dazed teenager got out. It looked like the whole town was in her house!_

_Leigh Evans through an arm around her daughter and gave her a kiss on her head, "Happy sweet sixteenth, Sweetheart."_

_Ah! Her mother had planned this party, and that would definitely explain the whole town being in her house. Leigh was well known for her out of control parties._

_As Lily was lead over to the couch and given a tiara to wear (because as she had told Kevin, she was a queen for the day), she celebrated her birthday with all of her friends around her. She got excited over presents and cajoled Jack O'Reilley to bring her to the city, so she could take her driving test before she went back to school. _

_They laughed, talked, and shared tales all through the night. At four in the morning, when the town police finally broke the loud party up, Lily had long since concluded that this was the best birthday ever…even if this time around no one had been arrested. _

Travel back in time with me, and learn their story. Learn who they were, and understand what they sacrificed. Don't pay lip service to the dead to hide the relief you feel. Don't smother the living with your needs.

Instead, see the friendships forged. Mourn for the souls taken, because you truly regret their lives being cut short. Grieve for the family left behind and let yourself really see the homes destroyed. However, don't let these tragedies blind you to the life they lived.

Join me and see the lives of those who we have lost. Really understand who they were. They were extraordinary people who believed, like their son, they were nothing special. They studied hard, they cut class, and they flipped out over exams. They fought with their families, grieved for their friends, and were as young and stupid as anyone else.

They had bad break ups, and they survived ruined friendships. They looked for jobs and they paid rent. They had dreams, and they loved life. Learn about these incredible people who dared to hold tight to their dreams as the world they knew shattered around them. You didn't open this story to find out how history ended, you came to watch it unfold. Spiral back in time with me to understand the generation of the vivacious people whom history has forgotten.


	2. A Beginning

Thanks and Disclaimers are written in Prologue. Thanks once again to my wonderful beta's. Thanks to all who reviewed, and I'm sorry for the delay. Please enjoy reading and please, please, please leave a review. That's what makes putting it up on this site worth it. Reviews. Thank you.

X-X-X-X-X

_Ring! Ring! _

The door opened and the keys dropped into the smiling little leprechaun's pot-o'-gold trinkets.

_Ring! Ring! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnggg!_

"_Hello, fellow creatures of the universe. You have reached the house of Bugs Bunny and Tweety. We're not here right now, because we have better things to do than to answer the phone and listen to you babble on. If you still feel the need to leave a message, than by all means, do so. We make no promises to call you back. If you still feel that leaving us a message, or even listening to this message, is not a total and complete waste of your time, we will now provide the means to do so. P.S. We provide no warrantee or medical coverage for what you are about to hear. Eeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkk!"_

"_Bloody hell! You people are insane! That said, you have got to teach me how you got that noise, whenever you get home. I just called to let you know that I'm happy you're back at home, and I hope to see you sometime this summer. I hope you had a great year in school, and I can't wait to talk to you. Call me back – Leigh, you know my number. I love you. Dad."_

"Well, the timing of that phone call was suspiciously eerie," Lily commented to her mother.

"He's a math geek."

"That explains my query…how?"

The two Evans tugged Lily's trunk up the stairs. "Well he knows what time your train gets in and about how long it takes to get from our house to the city… so, yeah. He's a math geek."

"A rebellious math geek?"

"Clearly," Leigh huffed as the two of them struggled under the weight of the trunk.

"You know," Leigh commented, "it's times like these I wonder why you couldn't have just picked the room on the ground floor."

"Because I'm a masochist." Lily balanced her half of the trunk on her knee, and fumbled with her doorknob. The door opened – only to send her and her mother flying into the room with the trunk landing partly on them and partly on the floor. The trunk opened immediately upon contact with the floor and sent a good half of Lily's items spilling across her bedroom. "We've got to work on that."

"Every damn year, this is what happens," Her mother agreed as she pulled one of Lily's socks out of her hair. "Maybe we should just get Matt to do it. I mean, he's strong. Then we wouldn't have to suffer through this every year."

"We thought of that last year," Lily reminded her mum, "but we discounted it, remember?"

"Oh, yeah…Wait, fudge! No! Why would we do that?!" Leigh cried in distress, sending her hand swooping down onto a pile of assorted knickknacks. This inevitably hurt her hand, and prompted a cry of "Ow, ow, owww!" Once this was finished, Lily was happy to accommodate her dearest mother with an answer.

"We didn't ask Matt for help because of all the magical items that pop out of my trunk whenever it accidentally opens." To prove her point, Lily tossed an item onto her mother's lap.

"Oooooh! That's so pretty!" Leigh exclaimed over the miniature spherical knickknack as it glowed a soft misty gold in her palm. "What is it? What's it supposed to do?"

"It forecasts the weather," Lily informed her mother with some amusement.

"No, really? But it's so pretty!" Leigh watched the device with fascination.

"Exactly. It will forecast the weather for up to three days in advance, but it's just as faulty as the weather forecasts in the morning paper or on the news. Well…maybe it's slightly more accurate. No matter what though, it's really pretty to look at."

"Honey, tell your mother what all the pretty colours mean." Leigh prodded her daughter as she unceremoniously pushed some of her daughter's clothes off of the bed and sat down to study the knickknack further.

Lily stepped over the relocated pile as she hung up a shirt. "Gold means sunny, green means rain… and that's the extent of my knowledge." Lily tossed her mother a thin pamphlet. "That should contain all the information about this device you need."

"It makes pretty colours…" Leigh sounded hypnotised.

"I don't suppose you'd care to stop looking at the pretty object in favour of helping your struggling daughter put away her things?" Lily asked dryly.

"Of course not!" Leigh sounded scandalised.

"Then why are you in my room?"

"I haven't seen my daughter for well over half a year and she wants me to leave already!" Leigh exclaimed in pretend agony.

"No… but that doesn't explain why you're here."

"My very presence fills this unpacking session with more life, so I, in fact, do not have to do anything."

"Bzzzt... Try again," Lily said playfully.

"Do I ever require an explanation?" Leigh inquired.

"All the time but none could ever quite cover it," Lily responded offhandedly.

"Hey!" Leigh protested, snapping out of her hypnotic fascination with the magical weather forecaster to glare at her daughter, who in turn, defended herself.

"It's true." Seeing that this explanation wasn't nearly good enough, as evidenced by the pillow thrown at her head, Lily elaborated. "Besides, it wasn't meant as a bad thing. Think of it as meaning you're an enigma. An insane, illogical enigma."

Leigh pouted at the redhead but desisted with her glaring. "What were you asking again?"

"Why you were here," Lily recapped as she threw a pair of boots into her closet.

"Oh, yeah!" Her mother shrugged. "To help, of course."

"How exactly are you doing that? You're sitting on my bed staring at an object!"

"Through my engaging conversation, of course."

"What engaging conversation?"

"The one we're about to start." Leigh made it sound as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Alright…" Lily agreed distractedly, as she tried to figure out if she would need the book she was holding in her hand ever again in her life.

Unfortunately for Lily, this meant that she wasn't paying any attention to her mother, who sat up on her bed as soon as she heard the distracted tone of her daughter's voice and was now eyeing Lily with a scheming look on her face.

"Have fun this year?" She asked her oblivious daughter innocently.

"Yeah," Lily replied. _100 Magical Meals_, had she even used this book?

"How were your classes?"

"Fine." Was it possible this book belonged to one of her roommates? It certainly wasn't a school book unless Flitwick decided to start teaching a cooking class.

"So…."

Absorbed in her thoughts, Lily completely missed the hinting tone to her mother's voice. Julie liked to cook; maybe this book belonged to her? "So…" She absently mocked her mother.

Leigh grinned mischievously at her unaware sixteen-year-old daughter. "Who was the cute boy at the station you were carefully avoiding any eye contact with?"

_That_ shocking comment certainly snapped Lily out of her thoughts. Actually, that was a bit of an understatement. Lily wouldn't have been more shocked if a flying pink crocodile apparated into her room, and proceeded to proclaim to the world – in English, no less – that it was becoming a vegetarian. "What?!"

"Cute boy. Kings Cross. Any of this ringing a bell?" Leigh prompted.

She seemed extremely put out by the bewildered head shake her daughter was giving her. So, in typical Leigh Evans fashion, she decided that her daughter needed to be pressed further. "Glasses, very tall, messy black hair…?"

Wow. Could her mother _be_ more wrong? And here Lily had been racking her mind to think of who her mother could possibly be referring to, and she chose _him_ of all people! Well, sure, she was avoiding him, but for completely different reasons! "I was avoiding him for completely different reasons, Mum . It was definitely not because I have a crush on him. I'd have to be mental to have a crush on him."

"Well, you do sort of fulfill that requirement," Leigh gently teased. "So does this boy, the one you would have to be insane to have a crush on, have a name?"

"James Potter. And I was avoiding him because I was embarrassed."

"Why? Does he have a crush on you?"

"No."

Her mother was now understandably confused, and so when her daughter suddenly stood up and started heading for the door, she protested. "Hey, wait! You can't leave a story there! That's unfair!"

Somehow, she managed to untangle herself from her previous position on Lily's bed and beat her daughter to her door. Leigh blocked the door, "Why were you embarrassed?"

"Well…you see, there's a strong possibility, that I might have, possibly…yelled at him in front of the entire school." Lily ducked under her mother's arm and hurriedly rushed down the stairs towards the kitchen.

"What?!" her mother chased after her. "You cannot just leave a story off there. Details, Lily, I need details!"

Lily passed her mum a steaming cup of their patented, super strong black coffee, tolerable only for the two of them and Daniel. Pouring one for herself, she continued her story. "I was really frustrated. Kevin's leaving this year, and he's like my brother, and I was so stressed out about that…. Plus it was just after our Defence OWL exam. I was at my snapping point, and he was acting like such a bigoted arse, so I just…blew up. Sort of."

"_Sort of_? How do you 'sort of' blow up at somebody? The term 'blow up' in itself is pretty absolute," Leigh pointed out as she sipped at her coffee.

"Alright, fine," Lily conceded. "I blew up at him. Period."

"So, what's on your mind, Monkeybutt?"

"Monkeybutt?"

"I've just felt like saying that for the longest time, and this was the perfect opportunity. Anyways, what was he doing that was so bad?"

"Argh!" Lily fumed, "He was just picking on Snape for no reason, and then… Oh…and then! _Then_, he had the balls to ask me out in front of the entire school. He said it so condescendingly as if he would be doing _me_ a _favour_."

"Isn't James Potter one of the kids who play all those brilliant pranks you occasionally write to me about?" Leigh asked. "And isn't Snape, in your words, that 'slimy prejudiced asshole?'"

"True," Lily acknowledged, "but that doesn't mean he had any right to pick on him simply because he could. Snape didn't even do anything, and being a world class arsehole isn't a crime. He was just so…_conceited_." Lily sighed. "Anyways, I was so embarrassed by what happened that I've just been actively avoiding him since then."

"Yes, because there's no such thing as inactively avoiding."

"When did you start to go on a grammar kick?"

"I'm not!" Leigh protested. At her daughter's look, she confessed. "It's really fun to bug people."

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my mother: A thirty-two year-old woman, who possesses the maturity of a five-year-old."

"Don't be snippy," Leigh admonished.

They both sipped at their coffee quietly for a moment before Lily broke the easy silence. "So, where are we going this summer?"

Her mother was an archaeologist. This meant that they were inevitably away for at least a part of each summer for almost every year, and Leigh was out of town for far longer than that ever since Lily began to go to Hogwarts.

"Well, this month we won't be going anywhere. Next month however…what do you think of Egypt?"

"Sounds great. Will Daniel also be on this dig? I feel like I never get to see him anymore," Lily complained. Daniel was her favourite archaeologist next to her mother, and was like family to them both. She hated that she only got to see him a few times a year, but she kept in touch with him with letters through her mother, so it wasn't that bad.

"He'd better be. It's his dig."

"Yes! Daniel's digs are always interesting. Plus, this means I'll definitely get to do things, help out, learn the language and history…"

"It's not like you've never been to Egypt before Lily. Quite a few of my digs have been there."

"But there's always more to learn. Also, they have great Wizarding and Muggle communities in Egypt, so I'm never bored. Unlike that dig in Africa three years ago…"

"Are you going to hold that over my head for eternity?" Leigh whined. "Was it my fault the dig director was an arse?"

"Or that we were away from all traces of civilisation at that location? Nope, not your fault whatsoever. I was just saying how happy I am it's Egypt this year," Lily said sweetly.

"Alright, I'm going to finish unpacking and then maybe we can get something to eat."

"Forget unpacking, you can do it when we come back. Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving, and Kat's missed you." The brunette tossed the empty mugs into the sink and headed for the door.

"Does this mean a free meal?" Lily asked hopefully.

"I don't think she's missed you that much."

"Free cake?" Lily persisted in her optimism.

"That one's a possibility," Leigh conceded.

"Really? Cake? I get cake!"

"Of course you get cake. You cannot disappear for half a year and not get cake. I'm serious kiddo, this year we are going to have a serious discussion about chaining you to our house so you don't have to leave."

"How would I go to the bathroom? Or take a shower?" Lily demanded.

"You'd live."

"Or going to the café to get coffee, my precious coffee, the elixir of life itself?"

Leigh paused at that one for a moment before revising her previous declaration, "Or we would just attach you to the house with a really long rope. The only condition would be you couldn't leave town…oh, I like that one!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "You're insane."

"No," Leigh protested. "Well, okay, maybe that's true, but the point is that _I _am brilliant."

"Brilliant? On which planet?"

"_This_ planet, sweetest Lily," Leigh replied amiably.

"In your dreams."

"Alright, that's it. No coffee for you," Leigh cackled evilly as Lily protested.

"What?! No! Mu-um, that – you can't – you're evil!" the redhead huffed.

"I'm the queen of evil. Compared to me, you, my dear, are a mere apprentice."

"At the end of winter vacation I was a lifeline. According to you, I was your life's blood, which you simply could not survive without. Go back to that," Lily pleaded with the self-proclaimed queen of evil.

"Ah, but you see now you are trapped in my dungeon of doom for the entire summer," Leigh cackled once more.

"Quit with the cackling, it's just plain creepy," Lily advised her mother.

"Yeah, okay, Glinda."

"If I'm Glinda, then you're Momba."

"Noooooooo," Her mother whined like a four-year-old, and proceeded to stomp her feet on the pavement. "I want to be a Munchkin!"

"_You_ are _obsessed_ with the Munchkins."

"No, I am not!" Lily's mother vehemently denied.

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"You're as obsessed with them as you are with the Oompa Loompa's."

"They're just so cute!"

"Ha!" Lily exclaimed triumphantly. "You admitted it!"

"Damn," Leigh swore right before they entered the café. Upon their entrance, Kat came quickly from behind the counter to wrap Lily up in a hug.

"Lily! I've missed you! Come, let me get you both some coffee and we'll chat…" Kat began to steer Lily in the direction of the counter, where her brother Jack was busy making coffee.

"Hey! What am I? Chicken soup?" Leigh grouched good-naturedly as she trailed after both her wayward daughter and her long-time friend.

"Of course not," Kat called over her shoulder. "_That_ would imply that you're a good person to hang around when we're sick."

For the safety of their precious cake, it was a good thing Kat didn't see the tongue Leigh stuck out towards her.

X-X-X-X-X

"See you tomorrow!" Kat and Jack O'Riley, called out to them as they left the café.

"You bet! Where else are we going to get coffee?" Leigh called back as Lily waved goodbye.

"I'm going to head over to Lyn's house to say 'hi' and stuff; let her know I'm back, and catch up on the year and all that jazz," Lily informed her mother. "I'll meet you back at the house?"

"Either there, or at Matt's if he came back to town already."

"Are you going to see him about that strange noise in our car?"

"Hell yeah! The last thing we need is that car breaking down."

"True. So I'll see you at home, or at Matt's."

"Okay. Wait," Leigh stopped her daughter as she checked her watch. "It's after eleven, how are you going to get in to see Lyn? You know how strict her parents are."

"How else? I'm going to climb a tree and knock on her window," Lily proclaimed as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Oh, of course," Her mother mocked.

"Oh, of course." Her mother mocked.

"I'll see you later." Lily took off down the street.

"See you!" Leigh headed in the opposite direction.

Less than ten minutes later Lily was perched precariously on the roof and knocking on her friend's window. "Lyn!" she hissed quietly.

Lyn opened the window, and Lily slid into her room.

The brunette hugged her tightly. "Hey, I missed you!"

"I missed you too!" Lily whispered. They were both being very careful not to wake Lyn's parents up.

"So…what's been happening since I last saw you at winter vacation?"

"With that awesome party," Lyn pointed out to her.

"My mother _is_ noted for them."

"That she is," Lyn laughed softly as they perched across from each other on the bed.

"So…spill all the juicy happenings in your life!" the vivacious redhead prompted her oldest friend. "You turned sixteen in February and after that I know nothing."

"Thanks for the gift by the way."

"What are friends for? I'm just happy you liked it."

"Really liked it," Lyn stressed. "I've been looking for that album."

"Well, you have it."

"Yeah," Lyn smiled. "I have a boyfriend."

That was definitely new.

"Do I know him?"

"No," Lyn's brown eyes sparkled. "He only moved here a couple of years ago, so I don't think so."

"What's his name? Is he cute? Since when do you have a boyfriend?" As Lily fired question after question at her friend, they talked about their years, swapping stories well into the night. It was almost four in the morning when Lily finally left.

"I'll come by later today…when your parents won't kill me."

"Yeah, you might get pounced on by my siblings," Lyn warned Lily.

"Believe me, I don't mind," the redhead said firmly. "And I'd better meet that boyfriend of yours soon!"

"You will," Lyn promised.

She gave her friend a quick hug, before darting out the window. Lyn made sure Lily was safely on the ground before she closed the window.

Down on the ground, Lily couldn't help but wonder what else she'd missed while away at a magic school. She missed her oldest friend turning sixteen, and getting a boyfriend. Hell, she'd never even met this boyfriend! She wasn't there for Lyn's younger brother losing his first tooth or for that funny incident at the spring fair. The stories she recounted in turn lacked detail, because how could she possibly go in to the magical side of her stories without betraying the laws of her world?

_Her world_. Was it really so different, magic and Muggle? When did she start to draw definite lines in the sand? After all, they were really all just people living on Earth.

Nevertheless, as she walked home, Lily couldn't help but think that she hadn't felt so alone in a long time. Sitting in her old best friend's room and listening to her talk, she realised that she couldn't share most of her life with her anymore. Not with Lyn, not with Kat or Jack at the café when they'd asked about school. She couldn't talk about the career she was going into or what electives she was taking.

Late that night, Lily felt a chill sweep through her body. It was a chill that had nothing to do with the nonexistent wind.


End file.
